65,000 works. Yours.

An unofficial concept for exploring Detroit’s art collection. Start with a work that catches your eye, or plan an hour at the museum.

Walk the salon wall

Rodin's Thinker in front of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the words DEDICATED
BY THE PEOPLE and DETROIT carved in the marble behind

The Thinker Auguste Rodin, 1840–1917 Bronze, cast 1904 · Woodward entrance—

If you live in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb county, this museum is already yours — free, every day.

The tri-county millage makes general admission free for residents. The real dia.org keeps this in small print; a redesign should put it where Bruegel can see it. Plan the visit.

Walk three centuries

1566 to 1900, hung in one line. Drag, scroll, or use the arrows — the wall does not move unless you move it.

The Wedding Dance by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566 — **Pieter Bruegel the Elder**
The Wedding Dance

Martha and Mary Magdalene by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1598 — **Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio**
Martha and Mary Magdalene

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, c. 1623–25 — **Artemisia Gentileschi**
Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes

The Visitation by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1640 — **Rembrandt van Rijn**
The Visitation

The Jewish Cemetery by Jacob van Ruisdael, 1654–55 — **Jacob van Ruisdael**
The Jewish Cemetery

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, 1781 — **Henry Fuseli**
The Nightmare

Fruit Piece by Robert S. Duncanson, c. 1849 — **Robert S. Duncanson**
Fruit Piece

Cotopaxi by Frederic Edwin Church, 1862 — **Frederic Edwin Church**
Cotopaxi

Defiance: Inviting a Shot before Petersburg by Winslow Homer, 1864 — **Winslow Homer**
Defiance: Inviting a Shot before Petersburg

Violinist and Young Woman by Edgar Degas, c. 1871 — **Edgar Degas**
Violinist and Young Woman

Nocturne in Black and Gold — The Falling Rocket by James McNeill Whistler, c. 1875 — **James McNeill Whistler**
Nocturne in Black and Gold — The Falling Rocket

Rounded Flower Bed (Corbeille de fleurs) by Claude Monet, 1876 — **Claude Monet**
Rounded Flower Bed (Corbeille de fleurs)

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat by Vincent van Gogh, 1887 — **Vincent van Gogh**
Self-Portrait with Straw Hat

Women Admiring a Child by Mary Cassatt, 1897 — **Mary Cassatt**
Women Admiring a Child

The Three Skulls by Paul Cézanne, c. 1900 — **Paul Cézanne**
The Three Skulls

Four wings, four walls

Dutch & Flemish

Bruegel's dancers, Rembrandt's quiet miracle, and the cemetery Goethe wrote about. Enter the wing → Baroque & Romantic

Caravaggio's argument by candlelight, Artemisia's Judith, and the most famous nightmare in art. Enter the wing → American

A volcano at sunset, a soldier daring a sniper, and the first Black American painter with an international name. Enter the wing → Modern

Van Gogh before anyone wanted him, Monet's garden, Whistler's rocket, and three skulls by Cézanne. Enter the wing →

The wing groupings and wall colors are this concept's — the real museum arranges itself differently.

Seventeen seconds, six paintings, no captions

Authored for this concept from the museum-scan reproductions themselves — the camera moves so you look longer. The details, in order: Fuseli, Caravaggio, Bruegel, van Gogh, Whistler, Church. The stories behind them.

Most visits are an hour.
Build yours before you park.

Pick up to five works anywhere on this site and My hour turns them into a walking order with honest timings — because the fastest way to hate a museum is to try to see all of it.

Open my hour Pick from the wall

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat by Vincent van Gogh

Self-Portrait with Straw Hat Vincent van Gogh, 1853–1890 1887 · Oil on artist's board22.13

The Nightmare Henry Fuseli, 1741–1825 1781 · Oil on canvas55.5